Search, Find & Surf! Privacy friendly.

Choose the privacy-friendly search engine

Other search engines collect and save your search terms to learn everything about you. The Internet may give you access to the world, but it can also give the world access to you! With StartPage, you gain access to great search results while your personal information remains private.

Everyone has a right to privacy

We have been fighting for a safer Internet since 2006. Our search engine doesn't make money from your personal information. We believe everyone has a right to privacy. It is unethical to profile you through your online searches and capture details of what you search for and what links you click. Just imagine a librarian following you around the library, recording everything you are reading!

With StartPage you remain invisible

StartPage acts as an intermediary between you and Google. Google only sees us, they never see you. When you enter a search, we submit it to Google for you, so Google only sees that StartPage is searching for something. We get the results, strip out the tracking cookies, and deliver completely private, anonymous search results to you. We never store your IP address or other personal information, and we never hand it off to Google. You remain completely invisible.

Visit the sites you find in privacy, too!

Every StartPage search offers a Proxy feature, which lets you visit websites anonymously by clicking the word 'Proxy' next to the search result.

No more worries or targeted ads.

People unwittingly share enormous amounts of personal information every time they go online. StartPage protects your privacy so advertisers don’t use your search terms to target you with personalized ads that follow you around.

We unwittingly reveal a lot of personal information every time we go online.

When you surf the web, your search engine is your best friend. You share your most intimate thoughts when you search for information. Other search engines secretly store all that data, register your IP address and place cookies  little tracking files  in your browser so they can follow you all over the Internet. They know everything you search for, when youre searching, and what you find interesting.

Ads designed to manipulate you

Your medical conditions, financial matters, political preferences, and relationship troubles are all very valuable to advertisers. Other search engines use this data to target you with online advertisements that continuously follow you from website to website. Hackers and criminals also want your information, which they can use for identity theft or fraud. And, of course, the government wants your data, too.

StartPage to the rescue!

StartPage offers excellent search results without violating your privacy. How do we do this? By working hard not to store any information about you. No IP address, no search results, and no browser information. Of course, we never use tracking ID cookies. We never share your personal information with third parties, which is equally important.

We're glad to welcome you on board!

Everyone who values privacy as much as we do is our friend. It's a universal language. Please read our Privacy Policy to learn how we handle data.

The AOL data leak: evidence there's a problem

In 2006, AOL made a grave error that revealed the stored search data of 600,000 users. It was a privacy nightmare. We invite you to take a look at the AOL file to see for yourself just how sensitive this information can be. We were shocked. You will be too.

Here's how it works: >> Enter an English search term and you can find other people who have searched on that term. >> Then click on User ID to see everything else this user has searched for. It's an eyeful.

Get all results, not just what they want you to see.

Other search engines deliver results based on what they know about you rather than giving you equal access to the Internet. In essence, you become trapped in a filter bubble. Some call it personalization. We call it censorship.

Get uncensored search results

Nowadays, search engines know enough about their users to try to anticipate what sorts of results they will like. That means they receive fewer and fewer new or unexpected results, causing their world  and their minds  to shrink. If you'd rather broaden your horizons and explore the full Internet without censorship, then StartPage is the search engine for you!

StartPage doesnt know what you've searched for in the past

With StartPage, your search results are determined by your search query, collected from a refreshingly objective Internet. We give you neutral, balanced search results. Every time. To learn more about how this works, see our filter bubble slideshow.

Proxy | So you can surf the web invisibly

Normally, when you click a search result, you leave the secure StartPage environment and visit a third-party website, which can see your IP address, track your movements, and put cookies on your browser. When you click Proxy next to a StartPage search result, we will retrieve the website for you and display it on our servers. The website never knows you saw it. Using the proxy is a little slower, but it's worth it to remain completely invisible. Click here for more information.

Highlight | Find search terms more easily

Click Highlight next to a search result and StartPage will highlight every place the search term appears, making it fast and easy to get to the information you're looking for.

Settings URL | Cookie-free searching

Cookies are little data files stored on your hard drive. Many websites use tracking cookies with a unique ID number to follow you around the Internet. In Europe, websites are required to ask for permission to use cookies, but if you deny the request, many websites won't let you in. After all, without cookies they can't make money off of you.

StartPage never uses this kind of tracking cookie. We do allow you to set your user preferences with us (language, font size, etc.) and store them with one innocent cookie. The settings cookie does not remember anything about you, except the settings you have selected during your visit. Even if you've set your browser to reject all cookies, you can still save your StartPage settings through our unique URL generator. Customize StartPage to your taste, bookmark this URL, and you can visit your customized search engine – without being tracked.

Maps | View Google Maps in privacy

When you search for a place name with StartPage, we retrieve a Google Map and show it to you anonymously. As always, we don't store or share your IP address, log your visit, or track you with cookies. Our private Google map lets you zoom in and out. However, the JavaScript scroll-and-drag feature is turned off to protect your privacy.

Maps | View StartPage Maps in privacy.

When you search for a place name with StartPage, we retrieve a map from our own - offline - version of 'Open Street Map', that's updated frequently, and serve the results to you anonymously. Our map interface allows you to zoom in or out and move around freely, but contrary to other map services, we don't track you.As always, we don't share your IP address, log your visit , or track you with cookies, and we don't store any locations you visit with StartPage Maps.

POST vs. GET | Prevent your search terms from being shared with third parties

It's rather technical, but StartPage uses something called a POST instead of GET command, which prevents a common privacy problem: webmasters seeing what youve searched for when you land on their website. Your search terms can contain private and sensitive information. With the POST method, we make sure your search terms are never shared with third parties.

Because of this privacy feature, when you click through to a website and then try to return to your StartPage search results, you may see an error message such as the webpage has expired. To record or share your searches, you can use the Bookmark this search link at the top right of the search result page. Or you can simply disable POST vs GET on the Settings page.

Those little Facebook and Twitter icons you see everywhere are actually little spies. Simply visiting a page where these icons appear ensures that your visit to that page will be shared with Facebook and Twitter. Thats why we've invented a unique two-step process that gives you access to Facebook and Twitter without your privacy being violated.

More...

Learn more about our features and find the answers to your questions through our Support Center.

You can trust StartPage.

Privacy is based on trust. Here's why you can trust us to do what we say.

StartPage is a European company

European law provides some of the strictest privacy protections on earth. In contrast, American companies can be forced to turn over user information to US government agencies, so, unfortunately, you can no longer trust them to handle your privacy securely. Thankfully, StartPage is legally exempt from any US data surveillance requirement. European governments would find it nearly impossible to engage in NSA-type spying. Your information is safe in Europe.

StartPage does not store any user information

StartPage has never given user information to any government agency in the nearly two decades we've been in business. After all, we can't hand over information we don't have.

StartPage is third-party certified

Nearly a decade ago, StartPage and its sister search engine Startpage blazed a trail as the first company to ever receive the European Privacy Seal from the organization that certifies European data protection. This certificate officially confirms that we keep our privacy promises. StartPage is the only third-party certified search engine in the world.

StartPage is registered with the Dutch DPA.

The Dutch DPA or "Data Protection Authority" oversees the secure handling of private and sensitive data, and guarantees that your privacy will be protected. StartPage is registered with the Dutch DPA under number M1346973.

With StartPage, your privacy is our priority

Your privacy is our highest concern. We've been perfecting private search since long before privacy was cool. Privacy distinguishes us from other search engines, and it's what we do best.